Calculating information from analytical data

By Brian McLean, Eurofins Laboratories Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

Eurofins Laboratories worldwide put a great amount of effort into ensuring that the quality of the analytical data they produce is “fit for purpose”. To ensure this data is under control the laboratories have Internal Quality Control (IQC) systems and participate in external sample check / proficiency testing schemes and ring trials.

Once analytical data is produced, it is often used by clients to calculate other information, sometimes using quite complex calculations and making use of suitable factors. This includes, for example, the calculation of meat content of meat products, energy content of prepacked food for labelling purposes, chocolate content of chocolate products, milk fat content of biscuits, or fruit content of jams or juice drinks.

In order to help their customers, most laboratories in the Eurofins Group can provide calculated information from their analytical data. Eurofins UK has accreditation to ISO 17025 for calculating some of these derived values. Examples are listed in Table 1.

This includes for instance the “Apparent Total Meat Content” of products containing meat which is calculated using analytical data and appropriate standard factors for the meat species and/or the cut of meat concerned.

Corrections are made to remove other sources of proteins (e.g wheat, soya, milk) which, if included, would enhance the apparent meat content result. An EU Directive specifies allowances for the amount of fat and connective tissue (e.g skin and gristle) that are permitted to be associated with the meat present, and which is allowed to contribute towards meat content. Calculations are carried out to identify excess fat and connective tissue which must be declared separately on labels.

Furthermore, several Eurofins Laboratories have databases of information that have been derived from extensive research and analysis of numerous genuine samples which can assist in the calculation of derived values, or assist in concluding whether a product is genuine.

Derived information is reported along with the analytical data in test reports and clients can use the derived data to produce labelling information, or check that the information declared on their food labels is correct, and for ensuring compliance with compositional standards.

Contact: info@eurofins.co.uk